Formula 1: Who's competing for the 2024 season?

Having won the last three titles, the Dutchman will be the man to beat. Once regarded as something of a tearaway on the track, Verstappen has matured in to a dominant force in the driving seat of a dominant team. At just 26, he is already third on the list of all time race wins with 54. Only Michael Schumacher and one other man have more.

That man is Lewis Hamilton. The Briton has won 103 Grand Prix and seven driver‘s titles. But the rise of Verstappen has seen his veteran rival fall back, with Hamilton, 39, amassing less than half of Verstappen‘s points total in 2023. A move to Ferrari in 2025 may offer a new start but a driver as competitive as Hamilton will not allow this year to be wasted.

Even at 39, Hamilton will not be the oldest driver on the grid. Spaniard Fernando Alonso will take that title at 42. Alonso has started 377 races in a career that started back in 2001 and has included world titles in 2005 and 2006. He came fourth last season and has already set up a management company for young drivers, with an eye to the future.

At the other end of the experience scale is American driver Logan Sargeant, 23, who has one season and one point to his name. No American has won a Grand Prix since Mario Andretti in 1978, before even Alonso was born. That is unlikely to change this year, despite Williams possibly improving as a team. Sargeant failed to finish seven races last year, something he needs to improve in 2024.

Sargeant's teammate may expect a little more from this year after a promising campaign in 2023 where he scored points in Bahrain, Canada, Britain, Italy, Qatar, United States and Mexico. Though he grew up in the UK, Albon races under the Thai flag, as his mother is from Thailand. He is the first driver to represent that country since the 1950s.

The first Chinese driver in F1 history will race for the team formerly known as Alfa Romeo. Zhou and teammate Valtteri Bottas, who has twice finished second in the driver's championship, may have hopes of shaking up the established order in a couple of races, with Zhou keen to improve on a Grand Prix best of fifth. Qualifying remains an area of concern though.

A country with a more storied Formula One history, Germany nevertheless has just one driver on the grid in 2024. Hülkenberg, who replaced compatriot Mick Schumacher at Haas in 2023, has had a nomadic F1 career, with spells at seven different teams. His 14 years on the track have failed to yield a podium yet, and the odds on that changing in 2024 are generous.